6. The Return Of A World-Renowned Character & Performance
Nathan Drake is one of the only characters that remains from the last generation, and one of the only 'faces' of gaming you can point to as someone synonymous with the medium. It was pretty telling from the last two E3s, when both Sony and Microsoft put together highlight reels of their most iconic characters, that they struggled extending outside say Kratos, Marcus Fenix, a Fable-looking dude and, erm... Knack. In decades gone by, systems and games were sold off the back of these characters alone, whereas in today's industry you'll be hard-pressed to find a company creating a hero with enough PR might to really make a dint. As such, we're seeing the return of guys like Agent 47 and
Crash Bandicoot (possibly), rather than anyone new who's really worth championing. For the return of Nate, he comes with not only an iconic design born out of a back-to-basics ideology (removing the characterful trimmings of Crash or Jak & Daxter), but he's voiced by the righteously vibrant pipes of Nolan North. North's performance is one of the true greats; a perfect match of the actor's humour and sensibilities with that of the role on paper - a character that the second he's on screen, will be like revisiting an old friend.